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Prison nurse arraignment continued
A superior court judge has granted a “motion to continue,” rescheduling an original arraignment date of July 12 to Aug. 23 in the case of alleged sexual misconduct between a correctional facility-contracted nurse and the inmate she was treating.
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2016-07-13 / Front Page
Prison nurse arraignment continued
By Tory Jones Bonenfant
toryb@eagletimes.com
SPRINGFIELD — A superior court judge has granted a “motion to continue,” rescheduling an original arraignment date of July 12 to Aug. 23 in the case of alleged sexual misconduct between a correctional facility-contracted nurse and the inmate she was treating.
Attorney Brian Marsicovetere, representing defendant Rebecca Parker, filed the motion on July 7 in the case of the State of Vermont vs. Rebecca Parker. Superior Court Judge Theresa DiMauro granted the continuance on July 8.
Parker, 39, of Springfield was charged by the Vermont State Police on June 29, 2016 with Sexual Exploitation of an Inmate - Confined, according to court documents.
Parker is accused of being “engaged in a sexual act with a person she knew was confined to a correctional facility, in violation of Vermont Statute 3257(a)(1),” while she was a contracted employee for the Southern State Correctional Facility (SSCF) and providing services to offenders on behalf of the Department of Corrections, all according to court documents.
The alleged victim, a 31-year-old male inmate, is represented by Deputy State’s Attorney Heidi Remick, with a victim’s advocate also assigned on the inmate’s behalf.
Vermont State Police Detective Trooper Tyson Kinney was the investigating officer.
In Kinney’s affidavit, filed in Superior Court, the officer stated that he was assigned the investigation on Feb. 9, 2016 into the alleged sex offense at the correctional facility.
The investigation was generated after another inmate at the facility reported to staff on Feb. 1 that a male inmate was “possibly having inappropriate sexual misconduct with a nurse who had recently resigned” according to the affidavit.
The nurse was later allegedly identified through the investigation as Parker, who was working as an employee of Centurion-Vermont, a health care provider, contracting to provide services as a nurse at SSFC, according to court documents.
Kinney stated that the investigation revealed that Parker had changed her name to Lynn Henry “in an attempt to conceal her identity to corrections officials.”
The contact between the nurse and the inmate was allegedly through telephone conversations, the SSCF email / texting system, JPay, and in person when she was working with the inmate for dialysis treatments, according to the state trooper’s affidavit.
After the alleged misconduct was reported, SSCF staff seized emails and call records, handing them over to state police. Within those emails were “provocative photographs which depicted her in scandalous clothing” as well as photographs in which Parker appeared topless and in a bubble bath, all according to the affidavit.
Kinney said in the affidavit that the inmate was introduced to Parker when he began attending regular medical treatments three mornings a week. They became familiar with each other during those sessions from May to August or September of 2015, during which time the inmate described Parker as treating him “like a patient instead of an inmate, which he liked,” according to Kinney.
Over the next few months, the two became “emotionally closer,” and the inmate stated to Kinney that he began having “romantic feelings” for the nurse, according to the affidavit.
Toward the end of November 2015, the two had sexual intercourse on several occasions while concealing the acts from view, such as under a blanket or behind a chair, according to the inmate’s statement to Kinney.
The inmate also described two scars he said he had seen on Parker’s abdomen, below the navel.
On April 7, 2016, State Police Lt. Hugh O’Donnell, Detective Trooper Matthew Sweitzer, and Kinney executed a search warrant at 33 Cottage Ave. in Springfield and found clothing depicted in the seized emails. On June 1, Kinney executed a non-testimonial order on Parker, which permitted photographing her abdomen, and the officer noticed two scars on the defendant’s abdomen, all according to court documents. Police then issued the initial citation to appear in court on July 12 to answer the charge of sexual misconduct.
The penalty for the charge, a Class F offense, could be up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Parker is scheduled to face the charge at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23 in Superior Court - Windsor Unit, Criminal Division, in White River Junction.
There's some oddities in this story. For one, apparently the inmate is the defendant and provided evidence against the nurse, and that's certainly possible and possibly understandable, but without further explanation it seems odd.
ReplyDeleteThen it reports that the two had intercourse on multiple occasions concealed under a blanket or behind a chair. Possibly my definition of intercourse is too narrow, or maybe my idea of blanket or chair is, but this seems a little hard to imagine.
Then there's the evidence of photos showing the defendant in "scandalous clothing". I'm surprised it's still possible for clothing to be scandalous.
The Eagle Times article makes it clear that the inmate is a damfool as well as a Teller of Tales.
ReplyDeleteFor her punishment she must have a "Scarlet Letter", an "A", tattooed upon her forehead for all to see.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the legal system have anything better to do than to try this women? Like prosecuting violent criminals or drug dealers? She certainly didn't harm the prisoner who got lucky. It was obviously her own form of therapy for a sick man.
Hey why not at 2 for 1. He can now sue DOC! Make it seem that she forced the intercourse.
ReplyDelete